Everyone seems to absolutely adore this book but I'm not amongst them. Although the premise is really good, I found it slow going and despite their atrocities, the villains weren't all that threatening. Perhaps it was just too childish for me (well it is children's lit after all). ( )

From Gaiman's YA books, this one is not quite as brilliant as Coraline and much better than Stardust. I could imagine that if I had read this as a child, I'd never again be scared of graveyards - they're actually quite cozy, certainly safe in comparison to the outside world, and the inhabitants are a bit weird, but mostly harmless. Nobody, the protagonist, is well cared for, even if not all of his caretakers are as selfless as they seem to be.

This is my reread for April, and a darn good choice it was too. It's been a rough month (year, really, but who's counting?) and Neil's prose is always a comfort to me, giving me the sense that the world is a far more magical place than I can imagine. It's not always happy magic, but there's a sense of connection to the universe about it that is reassuring even when the story goes places that make me anxious or unhappy.

This is the story of Nobody Owens, Bod for short. As a toddler he escaped the man who murdered his entire family by wandering into the local graveyard and being adopted by the inhabitants. The Owenses, a lovely 18th century ghost couple, become his new parents, and Silas, who is not a ghost, and yet not human either (we know what he is without being told explicitly) becomes his guardian. But in this case it takes a graveyard to raise a child, and many of the ghosts have a hand in Bod's upbringing.

As he grows, he's taught ghostly skills such as fading, and haunting, and with Silas' help he learns to read and write. But eventually exploring the graveyard isn't enough for him, and he wants to go out into the larger world and learn about life. It's not an easy thing for Bod, Silas, and the ghosts to negotiate, particularly because Silas knows more about Bod's life, and the murders of his family members than anyone imagines. He knows Bod is still in danger, and is inclined to be over-protective. When he and smart, headstrong Bod clash, there's trouble.

Full cast recordings are not always a good thing, but in this case the cast is excellent, with Derek Jacobi as narrator, Julian Rhind-Tutt as a wonderful Silas, and a funny cameo by Gaiman as a forgotten poet with an over-blown sense of importance.

If you know and love Gaiman's work, I think you'll enjoy this audiobook. If you don't, this is not a bad way to enter his world. ( )

While “The Graveyard Book” will entertain people of all ages, it’s especially a tale for children. Gaiman’s remarkable cemetery is a place that children more than anyone would want to visit. They would certainly want to look for Silas in his chapel, maybe climb down (if they were as brave as Bod) to the oldest burial chamber, or (if they were as reckless) search for the ghoul gate. Children will appreciate Bod’s occasional mistakes and bad manners, and relish his good acts and eventual great ones. The story’s language and humor are sophisticated, but Gaiman respects his readers and trusts them to understand.

Fortinbras Bartleby, ten years old when he had died (of consumption, he had told Bod, who had mistakenly believed for several years that Fortinbras had been eaten by lions or bears, and was extremely disappointed to learn it was merely a disease), now apologized to Bod.

“You’re always you, and that doesn’t change, and you’re always changing, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Nehemiah Trot said, “Ah, list to me, young Leander, young Hero, young Alexander. If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.”

“And for that reason, if for no other, it is vital that the child be raised with as little disruption as possible to the, if you’ll forgive the expression, the life of the graveyard.”

"It's like the people who believe they'll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn't work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you." p. 104

Last words

But between now and then, there was Life; and Bod walked into it with his eyes and his heart wide open.

Wikipedia in English (2)

Nobody Owens lost his "really" family when he was infant and became adopted by a ghost family in his local cemetery. Aside from having ghosts for parents and guardians he also persued by the mysterious man who killed his family.

In The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman has created a charming allegory of childhood. Although the book opens with a scary scene--a family is stabbed to death by "a man named Jack” --the story quickly moves into more child-friendly storytelling. The sole survivor of the attack--an 18-month-old baby--escapes his crib and his house, and toddles to a nearby graveyard. Quickly recognizing that the baby is orphaned, the graveyard's ghostly residents adopt him, name him Nobody ("Bod"), and allow him to live in their tomb. Taking inspiration from Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Gaiman describes how the toddler navigates among the headstones, asking a lot of questions and picking up the tricks of the living and the dead. In serial-like episodes, the story follows Bod's progress as he grows from baby to teen, learning life’s lessons amid a cadre of the long-dead, ghouls, witches, intermittent human interlopers. A pallid, nocturnal guardian named Silas ensures that Bod receives food, books, and anything else he might need from the human world. Whenever the boy strays from his usual play among the headstones, he finds new dangers, learns his limitations and strengths, and acquires the skills he needs to survive within the confines of the graveyard and in wider world beyond. (ages 10 and up) -–Heidi Broadhead